Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted his side faces an almost impossible task when it travels to face a red-hot Barcelona Wednesday looking to overturn a 2-0 first-leg deficit to reach the Champions League quarterfinals for the first time in six years. As so often in the second half of Wenger's 20-year reign, Arsenal will travel to the Camp Nou with a sense of what might have been. It had its chances to lead at the Emirates three weeks ago before Barca's brilliant forward triumvirate of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez cut through it with an unerring ease it has made routine. Messi, Neymar and Suarez have scored a combined 103 goals this season, Arsenal's entire squad a mere 71. Top of the list of Wenger's detractors has been his inability or unwillingness to splash out on the top-class striker needed to turn Arsenal from perennial pretender into winner. Yet, he tried to land Suarez whilst the Uruguayan was still at Liverpool in 2013. In a tale of Arsenal's penny-pinch culture under Wenger, it infuriated Liverpool by launching a bid one pound over Suarez's reported £40 million buyout clause. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard managed to talk Suarez into staying for an extra season at Anfield by telling him he was "too good for Arsenal" and that his move to Barcelona would come. Gerrard was proved right. Inspired by Suarez's 31 Premier League goals, Liverpool agonizingly just missed out on its first title in 24 years. At the same time Barca had just suffered its first trophyless season in six years. Suarez then bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 World Cup, the third time he had bitten an opponent in his career, sparking widespread condemnation and a four-month ban. Yet, whilst others dithered, Barca pounced, eying exactly Suarez's aggression as the tonic to revitalize the squad already blessed with the talents of Messi and Neymar. Arsenal benefited in its own way from Suarez's move as it snapped up Alexis Sanchez as Barca sold the Chilean to balance the books. Yet, by swapping Sanchez for Suarez, Barca again demonstrated that it shops in a different market to Arsenal and hasn't looked back since. Suarez has managed to succeed where other great strikers like Zlatan Ibrahimovic and David Villa have failed in dovetailing perfectly with Messi. Stopping one is difficult, stopping all three of the South American trio has been an impossible task in the past 18 months. Bayern back to its best Bayern Munich is confident it has overcome a mini-crisis just in time for its Champions League round of 16 second leg against Juventus Wednesday as it chases a treble of titles this season. After conceding two second-half goals to draw 2-2 in Turin last month, Bayern's near flawless season stuttered again after managing just one point from its previous two league games. It returned to form, however, Saturday when it crushed Werder Bremen 5-0. "I think we showed that we are in a very good form. I would say that we are looking toward Wednesday with optimism," Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said. Bayern, chasing a record fourth consecutive Bundesliga title as well as the German Cup in what is coach Pep Guardiola's last season in charge, is in the driving seat, having scored twice in Italy and Juve needs a win or a draw with three goals or more to advance. Bayern has a perfect home record in the competition this season, having beaten Dinamo Zagreb, Arsenal and Olympiakos with an aggregate score of 14-1. Juventus is in equally scintillating form, unbeaten in the league since October and having won 18 of its 19 league games since then. — Agencies
